It’s the birthday of Lillian Hellman (1905-1984), one of the most important American playwrights of the 20th century and a strong political activist. She’s best known for such plays as The Children’s Hour (1934) and Toys in the Attic (1960) and for refusing to capitulate to the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s.

Hellman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but moved with her parents—her father was a shoe salesman—to New York City when she was five. She spent her childhood shifting back and forth between her parents in NYC and her relatives in New Orleans, spending half a year with each. She studied at both Columbia University and New York University but graduated from neither, getting a job in publishing instead. In 1925 she married the playwright Arthur Kober and moved with him to Hollywood; her marriage to Kober ended in 1932, but her relationship with Hollywood continued strong and she became a prominent screen writer as well as a playwright.

By this time Hellman was romantically involved with the novelist Dashiell Hammet, with whose encouragement she wrote The Children’s Hour, a gripping play about two teachers accused of being lesbian lovers by a malicious student. The play’s topic violated taboos of the time and was banned in several cities but was a huge hit on Broadway, earning Hellman $125,000 in its first run and $50,000 from Samuel Goldwyn to turn it into a screenplay—but without the lesbianism. The New York Times said in Hellman’s obituary (July 1, 1984), that to Hellman, “[It] was a play not about a vicious child but about the evil power of a slander, and to some degree anticipated the political investigations of the left that were to come.” Hellman continued to experience success with her plays and screenplays until the early 50s, when she refused to name names, telling the House Committee on Un-American Activities, “I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions.” Her partner, Hammet, was imprisoned for refusing to do the same and Hellman was blacklisted and lost almost her entire income. Her fortunes reversed again when Toys in the Attic came out.

In the 60s, Hellman began writing her three memoirs, starting with An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir (1969), which won a National Book Award in 1970. About Hellman’s memoirs, yesterday’s author, Tobias Wolff, said this: “But, you know, there are obviously memoirs which go the other way like Lillian Hellman who cannot tell–Mary McCarthy was actually right about her–she couldn’t tell the truth to save her soul.” Wolff refers here to a litigious feud Hellman became embroiled in with McCarthy over McCarthy’s claim that Hellman’s every word was a lie, including “and” and “the.” (So. Read the memoirs, I bet they’re brilliantly written, but maybe take them with a shaker of salt.)

Hellman outlived Hammet by more than 20 years. She died of cardiac arrest at Martha’s Vineyard at the age of 77.

Have a Wednesday of unexpected mental refreshment and stay scrupulously honest to the data.